LWT 20 | “The Tolle Trap”: Interview with Brian Johnson of Philosopher’s Notes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:30 — 76.7MB)
Have you fallen into the “The Tolle Trap?” Have you been awakened by the teachings of Eckhart Tolle and find that creating a new earth is *ALL* about the power of now and being in the moment? On this recording of our April 6, 2010, teleseminar, we discuss “The Tolle Trap” with special guest Brian Johnson.
Brian Johnson is Chief Philosopher for PhilosophersNotes.com. In this conscious conversation about the traps one might stumble into while on the path of awakening, Brian discusses the value of a spiritual practice for deepening ones experience of being, while at the same time creating an inspiring vision for one’s life and pursuing that vision by setting meaningful goals.
Brian uses a model introduced by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar in his book “Happier” to provide a context for living a balanced, happy life. A person typically falls into four “archetypes”: The Rat Racer (all about goals and the future), The Hedonist (all about the pleasure of the moment), the Nihilist (tried both and still not happy), and The Happy Person (Realizes life is all about having goals that inspire us AND loving this moment as we take baby steps in the direction of our ideals.)
We recommend you read the full Note on Brian’s Facebook Fan Page: “The Tolle Trap”
Brian also expands on the word “ego,” highlighting the traditional viewpoint of the id, ego, and superego. He discusses the need to cultivate a healthy ego while in the process of transcending the ego. A healthy ego wakes up at 5am to meditate, exercises to maintain a healthy, balanced body, and creates a vision and goals for one’s life that enriches the lives of others and oneself.
This interview has generated a lot of pre-release buzz and we highly recommend making some space in your life to take a listen!
Peace,
Leo & Greg
Now for more on our guest and PhilosophersNotes.com:
Brian Johnson – Chief Philosopher
Brian Johnson loves wisdom. He also loves inspiring and empowering people to live their most joyful, authentically extraordinary lives. That makes him a Philosopher.
After realizing he wasn’t quite rockin’ his dharma a few years ago, Brian decided to sell the business he was running and give himself a Ph.D. in Optimal Living. He couldn’t find a program that integrated everything he wanted to study—from Positive Psychology and Old School Philosophy to Health & Fitness, Creativity, Business, Wealth Creation and Mysticism. So, he decided to create his own doctoral program.
He figured he’d get a Master’s when he’d distilled 100 of his favorite self-development books into summaries that he profitably shared with the world and that he’d get his Ph.D. when he synthesized that wisdom into a fun, inspiring, smart, and practical philosophy for the 21st century that inspires millions. He created an innovative company called “PhilosophersNotes” to earn his Master’s and is currently working on his dissertation.
In his past lives, Brian created eteamz and Zaadz—two leading social networking sites. He’s a proud law school drop out who enjoys spooning with his Goddess when he’s not reading or hiking or writing or otherwise enjoying himself.
And more from PhilosophersNotes:
The ultimate personal growth tool. Giving you more wisdom in less time.
The most transformational Big Ideas from 100 of the greatest personal growth books at your fingertips (and eyes and ears). Beautiful to look at and powerful to use, these mini-CliffsNotes™ of personal growth will inspire and empower you to live your deepest truths.
Intelligent design for faster learning
These 6-page PDFs aren’t just any regular summaries. From the colors to the font, PhilosophersNotes were designed for you to easily soak up the powerful wisdom. Big Ideas are outlined at the beginning of every Note, quotes pulled from the book are highlighted, and it’s all presented in a fun, quick-reading style that makes absorbing the wisdom from each summary a breeze.
BIG ideas made easy
Ever pick up a book, read the same sentence a few times and still have no idea what the author’s trying to say? Well, with PhilosophersNotes you don’t need to worry about that. Brian’s written each Note so everyone, not just philosophy majors, can easily understand the concepts and soak up the Ideas immediately. His style makes even the most revolutionary Ideas simple to grasp and fun to read. Plus you don’t have to adjust to reading 100 different writing styles and his sense of humor, playfulness, and laid back attitude will make you feel like you’re having a conversation with a friend.
Category: ARTICLES, PODCASTS, TELESEMINARS
About the Author (Author Profile)
Greg Larsen is the co-host of Living with Tolle and is an author, life coach, and spiritual teacher. He "stumbled upon" The Power of Now in 2000 and gave his first public presentation on the teachings of Eckhart Tolle to a Noetic Sciences community group in Nashville back in 2003.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Morning, Greg, Leo…..and Brian (when he eventually reads this after his honeymoon!)
Just to say that I have listened back though the podcast, and found so much that really resonates with me, and which is already helping to guide me back into getting creative and active from this new perspective of Presence.
In particular the need to experience not just an inner peace but also Enthusiasm (god within) for life and the pursuit of my goals.
Also, to check that there is laughter within the stillness.
And to remember that my ideals exist to continually generate positive intent, they are not literally to BE ACHIEVED. That’s so important for me to grasp, being one of life’s typical perfectionists who beats himself up when falling short of the ideal outcome.
Greg, Leo……….for me, even taking part in the teleseminar has been a significant step along this new adventure. It affirmed by intention to make real, lasting change in my life! And to have received direct, one-on-one guidance from you and Brian, was literally priceless. No exaggeration in that statement.
I would like to return the honour one day.
Please feel free to ask me for anything……how about ideas for a “Virtual” Living With Tolle in Second Life? Or simply a personal comment on the benefits I have enjoyed from tuning into what you guys are up to!
Joy!
Graeme
Wow two of my greatest websites and authors together. This one is definitely getting bookmarked, thanks guys.
Hey Graeme, I typed up a long response to your message early last week and then my computer had a hiccup and it all went away! The gift that came from this was I maintained a sense of peace with a situation that usually triggers a big overreaction (like pounding my fist on the desk).
Then I spent Wednesday through Sunday with Eckhart Tolle for a tapping of ET TV in Malibu. I was able to volunteer for two days in exchange for free admission for two days. Life changing to say the least. And then on Saturday the volunteers got a chance to hang with Eckhart in his dressing room and chat for about 15 minutes. Priceless! I could go on and on and will share my thoughts about this experience in a post.
Like you, so much of this podcast really resonated with me. Brian is just a wealth of energy, inspiration, and wisdom. To live a life with inner peace and enthusiasm, stillness and laughter, is really a powerful way to live and serve!
I have been slow to respond to this podcast because I have been in deep reflection regarding Brian’s idea of ego plus. Funny enough, we recorded this episode before I received a call to volunteer for Eckhart’s event. And then I had a chance to hang with Eckhart and ask him about this personally!
Part of Eckhart’s talk on the first day was about the concept of self esteem (which I find is similar to Brian’s ego plus). It is better to have positive self esteem rather than negative, but ultimately “no ego is healthy” (Eckhart’s direct reply to my question).
Self esteem is always based on comparison. My house, car, relationship, status, wealth, success, is this or that compared to them. So that stimulates a low level unease, tension, stress, unhappiness – so ego plus will always have within it the vibration that keeps you stuck in unconsciousness.
I think Brian’s reason for ego plus is because a lot of spiritual teachings take the position of destroying or annihilation the ego, which sounds like a lot of ego! And Brian is a self proclaimed psychology enthusiast, so that might have something to do with his “attachment” to the term ego.
Eckhart’s approach is to ignore the ego and focus on the Truth, that inner energy field within – presence, stillness, vibrant aliveness. Enthusiasm flows from that space, so does true creativity and right action.
Brian and I have been in dialogue before about this topic and I have always favored Eckhart’s position – and I still do.
During the teleseminar, Brian gave a new twist for me to reflect on. He said that it’s better to have a healthy ego while in the process of transcending the ego. Hmmm! I think a better way to phrase this is to minimize the dysfunction of the ego while transcending the ego. No ego is healthy.
But a connection to that life force within can trigger a creative vision and wave of enthusiasm to see that vision come to fruition. Ego plus is what blocks that vision and energy from coming to fruition in the most synergistic and organic manner.
So Graeme, sorry for the delay in responding to your message, but there was truly an organic flow to this process and I could have never imagined three weeks ago that I would be able to ask Eckhart (in person no less) for his feedback. How amazing!
So glad to know that your participation in the teleseminar was such a significant step on your path. And I would love your support and expertise on a project. The seed has been planted and let’s see how that unfolds!
And your comments on the site have been reflecting the benefits you have enjoyed from tuning in, but if you want to write up a more personal comment please do and send it to us!
Time to do some chores!
Take care Graeme!
Greg
The question of ego comes up a lot, and Brian’s interpretation of ego is different than Tolle’s. It’s why Tolle states in the Power of Now not to compare his teachings with others. Tolle’s ego is simply the mental image of who we are. Meaning who we think we are. All of us have an idea of who we think we are. Tollle is telling us to let that go, and this is why it is so hard. How do you stop mentally examining yourself? A Course in Miracles states, “You cannot judge yourself because you did not create yourself.”
Brian’s interpretation is simply western psychology, which is totally different from Tolle’s. I understand where Brian is coming from and it is certainly helpful, but becoming enlightened means letting go of your sense of self, the idea of who you think you are. You literally live that quote from A Course In Miracles. What no one realizes is that getting up at 5 am, meditating everyday, eating right, exercising, they come from you when you are no longer run by your ego. I find myself eating right and exercising because I want to, I choose to, everyday. Not because it is a ritual I think will lead me to enlightenment, but because I enjoy those things. I feel good when I do them, so I keep doing them. I eat smaller meals, not because I want to be thin and healthy, but because overeating makes me feel bad. I eat many smaller meals throughout the day and they are healthy meals. Again not because I’m trying to be healthy, but because when I eat fried food, sugary food, or even red meat I feel off. I don’t feel that deep sense of peace that I know is always there. In essence, getting rid of ego is simply feeling at peace all the time, and you get there by removing everything in your life that covers up that peace.
Having said all of that, if you haven’t had an experience like mine and Tolle’s I think this is certainly the next best thing. The whole “fake-it-til-you-make-it” idea. Do the things that a happy, peaceful person would do and guess what, you’re more likely to be happy and peaceful.
One last thing on helping others find their peace within. The key is experience. By experience I mean the pure experience of the world and your mental and emotional reactions to them. It’s almost as if you get a third eye when presence enters your life. You see the world and experience it, but you also witness your own thoughts and feelings about what you are seeing and experiencing in the world. Not even sure if that makes any sense, but that’s as close as I can get with words. Experiencing the world, and also experiencing your experience. That’s even closer! This is why losing your ego is so important. Once you stop trying to protect and defend your mental image, you’ll find that you will have much more energy to concentrate on your mental and emotional state in every moment. Until then, witnessing your thoughts and emotions can be very taxing and quite a pain the in the butt. Once you allow everything to be as it is, space is created in your mind and awareness floods in.
Hope my drivel helps clear up the whole “ego” problem. Mostly just semantics, but I think an important distinction. It doesn’t take a “healthy sense of self” to get up at 5 am, meditate, etc. All it takes is to focus on what you’re feeling at this moment, every moment. If you aren’t feeling peaceful, change what you are doing, change how you are doing it, or simply don’t do what you are doing anymore. Once you understand that when you are joyous and peaceful everything flows to you, your only job becomes being joyous and peaceful. And you do that by being in the moment, every moment. In essence, when you are truly at peace you will naturally do all the things that keep you in that peaceful state. You can only be at peace when you get rid of your mental image of yourself, what Tolle calls the “ego.” As he wrote in the Power of Now, “When you become enlightened there is one relationship you no longer have, the relationship with yourself. After that, all of your other relationships will be love relationships.” Truer words have never been written. Let go of who you think you are and let life live you. Do this and your life will change, I promise. As Dan Millman wrote in The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, “Once you lose your mind, you’ll come to your senses.”
Thanks Ken, wonderful writing. Helped me a lot !
Hi Ken,
Thanks for your contribution. I’m coming more and more to the sense that we make all of this so complicated yet, in reality, it really is so simple. I’ve enrolled in an online course to study “myself” and, like so many teachers do , I’m told that what I need to know is already in me. Yet, this course has opened my eyes to so many things that I simply, before, never payed attention to.
My point being that you have put in words what I’m experiencing. Being “aware” is letting me drop life long habits. Not because I “don’t want them” but because “I want something better”. Something that serves me instead of thinking always about what I don’t want.
I have recently become so aware about how I “think” and realize most of it is negative. Voices from the past dwelling on “what is wrong”. I now see how I can change that “thinking” to focus on “what is right”. I have just spent a glorious weekend with my wife doing what needs to be done…mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, cleaning the mowers.
Yet the greatest moments were when we sat in the evening, watching a multitude of birds cavorting in the spring air, clouds moving in the wrong direction (yes they were moving west instead of east as they usually do – how many people notice that?). The birds being robins, goldfinches, bob-o-links, blue birds…in a brilliant hue! Bumble bees bumbling along. The shadows stretching across the lawn…you can tell the time by where the shadows are if you are alert.
Okay…where was I going with this? Oh, the ego. Yes, I have recently let mine show on this site. But I agree that Brian’s take on the “ego” is different that what Echart (and others) are talking about. Thanks so much for posting because I was in a quandary about this.
I heard a lot of truth in Brian’s words but couldn’t quite reconcile them with where I am. Your comments have helped me to understand.
Ken,
Good stuff. What you have said echos my beliefs. Sometimes I feel I am the only one who has them. It is good to hear another reflect them.
I started down this road in the 90s. One of my first readings that struck me was Dan Millman’s Peaceful Warrior. First time I ever heard anyone else reference him. I suffer with anxiety driven by OCD. The more I travel down this road the better I am at just being. I just love to be in nature existing. I grow everyday at being the watcher and have gotten to the point where thought shuts off, not always, but to the point where I have pure peace. Mind doesn’t seem to like it much, but I do. I feel this is mind trying to regain control of my life, or as Tolle says, the little me not liking who I really am.
Guess I am a bit of a dinosaur to this practice too. Most every one I ever met in this Awakening line is a vegatarian. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I am a hunter. I kill animals and eat what I kill. It would seem that goes against standard practice for awakening, but it is who I am.
I tend to stay on the sidelines in most of these discussions because they have rules to enlightenment I don’t follow. Maybe this will keep me from making it into the kingdom of heaven, but I must be true to who I am. The reason I maintain this nature rallys around the fact that I am at great peace while I hunt. I am aware of everything and nothing. I quiet my mind to the point where there is nothing but me and life.
I have recently noticed that nature is changing, or I am changing in my awareness of it. Trees I thought ugly are now beautiful. My understanding of life keeps growing and I find much more beauty in everything I see. The trees almost seem to glow. Acceptance is my key and by doing so peace is my reward.
Maybe one day I will awaken but for now I try to be aware and accept what comes my way. I too use to meditate every morning for years, but now I try to adapt that practice to everyday life. It is difficult but what isn’t. I think meditation can only take you so far, open the door, but we must walk through to get to peace. It scared the heck out of me, still does sometimes, but until we walk off the cliff and see that it wasn’t a cliff after all but simply a little bump, we will never reach the prize.
Maybe I have no idea what I am talking about, but I will take what I am getting. Compared to the insanity of thought I like it here. Is there any way to get there, yes, believe in life/God.
I one day hope to find a master who can teach me the way. For now, I guess I will try to follow Tolle’s teachings the best I can and see what happens.
Ken, if you are somewhere on the East Coast and would like to chat please let me know. I can feel you have found yourself. That which I too wish to be.
Wishing peace to all who seek.
Regards,
Vince
Hi Vince,
Thanks for stepping in from the sidelines and giving your comments. They sure lead me to think you do, indeed, know what you’re talking aobut. Every teacher I’ve come across has said “there are no rules for becoming enlightened, there are only pointers that may lead you there.”
I’m currently reading I AM THAT, TALKS WITH SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ. It’s a captivating series of conversations between Maharaj and “seekers” who have come to learn the way.
One visitor asks, “You eat meat? Meat eating implies killing”
Maharaj answers, “I was born among meat-eating people and my children are eating meat. I eat very little…and make no fuss.” (I edited a little)
Apparently, despite some habits that hardly seemed that of an enlightened person (he smoked also) he was highly regarded as a Master.
There are no rules.Only pointers.(Eckhart points that our over and over again by the way.)
I found your comments meaningful and so similar to where I’ve come.
Thanks Again!
Hey Ken,
I really appreciate your contribution to this conversation, albeit far from drivel. You make some great points and it shows you come from a place of experience and not just an understanding. Regarding the ego, I recently read a simple definition that Eckhart offers in ANE: Ego is a dysfunctional relationship with thought.
The mind produces thoughts. The mind will always be churning out thoughts. Our relationship to those thoughts becomes dysfunctional when we believe them to be right or wrong, good or bad, or believe them to be who we are. An attachment to those thoughts is how the egoic identity is created. Once that identity becomes dense enough, then it can take on a life of its own, that lives through you via your sense perceptions. It is really a unique phenomenon. Unfortunately, that phenomenon has plunged humanity into the devastation of world wars, to unfathomable drama and suffering in families and intimate relationships, and a very negative inner dialogue for most people on the planet today. None of that is truly functional or even desired, but is the result of that attachment.
Regarding your insights into what get’s us up at 5am to meditate and so on, it makes me think of the Tao and the famous insight: “Doing, not doing.” A master no longer experiences the resistance of the ego, so all the details of life are taken care from a state of flow and right action. “Nothing is done. Nothing is left undone.” Whereas the “healthy” ego does and does and does, and still a sense that more needs to be done is the feeling one is left with.. All ego’s need more, more, more. At their very essence they are never completely satisfied.
A “healthy” ego will develop all on it’s own, we don’t need to assist with that. We can try and make it healthier, but ultimately it just leads to it opposite, an unhappy, uneasy, and dysfunctional sense of self. So as Eckhart recommends, see the ego for what it is, honor it, but ignore it. Focus you conscious attention on the Truth and grow in presence power. Presence power is all you need to transcend the ego and for flow and right action for pour forth from you.
Greg
I find these discussions of Eckard Tolle’s work very helpful. After listening to Tolle’s Findhorn Retreat lecture in 2004 and reading the condensed version book of the Power of Now, it really gives more depth to the understanding of this.
I’m an over-analyzer to death person of the past…this ego takeover stuff makes so much more sense.
From the movie “The Last Samauri” with Tom Cruise…he gets a worthwhile lesson from a young Japenese boy who taught him “No Mind” when fighting a seasoned Japenese warrior..he must clear out all of his “junk” in his head and fight clear headed..makes a whole lot more sense watching that part of the movie now..
Thanks John! So glad to hear that we were able to add depth to your understanding. Clearing out all that “junk” that the ego keep churning around and getting clear headed is a true blessing. All the best on your journey! Greg
..this is still thought..Alcoholic?..isnt that still a victim idenity?..arnt you still in fear?..330-806-4785.
Hey John, Thanks for your comment! Would love to have you expand more on what you are trying to convey. Peter Marinelli, from our previous teleseminar, can state he is an alcoholic, but I do not hear fear in his voice. I hear deep acceptance. So it is not necessarily a victim identity or someone in fear. Thanks so much